ii8 COURSING THE HARE 



days at which I used to be present something hke 

 twenty years ago, where the sport was, in its way, of 

 the very best. It happened that one of my neighbours 

 owned a hill farm about twenty miles from where 

 we both hved, and it was his custom to give the tenant 

 one day's coursing every year, on which occasion a 

 party of neighbours from our district drove over, saw 

 the sport, dined at the farmer's house, and drove back 

 again at night. It was a biggish day, even for country 

 people, who are accustomed to go a long way to covert, 

 and as it invariably took place in December, it followed 

 that much of the outward journey and all the getting 

 home was done in the dark. 



How well I remember those early starts ! One had 

 to rise about 4.30 a.m., and the rendezvous used to be 

 at the promoter's house at 5.45, for it was a terribly 

 up and down country that we had to travel, and as the 

 roads were never in good order, it used to take us a 

 long three hours to reach the scene of action. 



As a rule everyone was fairly punctual, for we 

 were a sporting lot in our district, and all of us were 

 accustomed to early rising. The walk to the starting- 

 point was generally performed in black darkness, and 

 the first glimpse of light was seen when we rounded 

 the corner of our friend's drive and found the lamps 

 of the four-in-hand brake staring us in the face. 



